McDaniels: Don’t let protests over police killings go in vain

The country is going through a racial reckoning. White people have hit the streets in masses in every state to condemn police brutality against African Americans. Confederate monuments are coming down in the staunchest pro-Confederate states and cities. Police officers are taking a knee. Companies like Peloton are declaring that “Black Lives Matter" and throwing money at civil rights organizations. The NFL has even in its own lackluster way sort of admitted that Colin Kaepernick had a point. (Balt Sun)

Ransom: Racism is a public health crisis

MedChi, The Maryland State Medical Society, is calling for action to address the tragic and ongoing public health crisis of racism in Maryland and across America. The COVID-19 pandemic has tragically demonstrated the health disparities experienced by communities of color. Ongoing acts of police brutality are a disturbing symptom of a systemic disease. These tragedies are converging in a historical storm of injustice against entire communities, but they are not new nor unique to this era. Disparities in health care, workforce development, housing, education, law enforcement, criminal justice, and other institutions are deeply rooted in both explicit racism and unconscious biases. These disparities are directly correlated with poor health outcomes and greater risk of premature death. (Daily Record)

Hickman: What does a coronavirus reopening look like for the inner city?

Who cares about the black and brown communities of Baltimore? Since the COVID-19 pandemic began all we continue to hear about are the comorbidities and health disparities that African Americans and impoverished communities have to endure. And yet there are no widespread testing, education and preventive measures on the horizon. Instead, there is the romanticizing of charity with food drops without the necessary investment for the future health, wealth and sanity of the neglected among us. (Balt Sun)

Rodricks: Will suburbanites see Baltimore as ‘our city’ again? There’s hope for that.

These days I seldom hear people in the suburbs refer to Baltimore as “our city.” Not like I used to. Expressing that connection and sense of regional unity seems to depend on how things are going. One winter night 20 years ago, when the Ravens were headed to their first Super Bowl, I heard a woman from Bel Air call a talk show. She loudly proclaimed, with a clear Bawlmer accent — specifically, a transplanted-to-Harford-County Bawlmer/Highlandtown accent — Baltimore’s mayor as her own. “Ehr mare, [Martin] O’Malley, is doin’ a great job,” she said. (Balt Sun)

Editorial: A chance for Frederick to lead the way

With darkness falling all across the land, it is comforting to find a ray of light right here in Frederick. The death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis on May 25 has sparked a wave of protests in cities across the country, many of which have been peaceful but some of which have not. (News-Post)

Klaas: Mattis finally spoke out. It’s time for any principled Republicans to do the same.

On Wednesday, Trump’s former defense secretary, Gen. “Mad Dog” Jim Mattis, let himself off the leash. The president’s now-notorious photo op earlier this week, when he ordered police and National Guard troops to brutally disperse peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square outside the White House, was too much for the general to bear. He criticized Trump with deservedly harsh, direct language. “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try,” Mattis wrote. (Wash Post)

Wanjek: America’s triumphant return to space? Or 1981 all over again?

The launch of U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX capsule and rocket on May 30 was a milestone in human spaceflight, marking the first time humans have flown into space on a commercial vehicle. More important for U.S. space interests, the flight to the space station with humans is the first from U.S. soil since the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet in 2011, the end of a near decadelong embarrassment of paying Russia $80 million to fly a single astronaut into orbit. (Balt Sun)

A Post-Peak Covid Lull Doesn’t Mean a Weaker Virus

It’s natural to want some good news in troubling times. There are potential dangers in reading too much into things. In Italy, there’s an ongoing public debate about a possible encouraging shift toward a weaker version of Covid-19. A leading virologist and doctor have endorsed this idea as the number of deaths, cases, severely ill patients and viral load they’ve seen on swabs are declining or holding steady even as the country reopens. (Wash Post)